November 27, 2007

The long-awaited Triton line of handheld GPS units from Magellan have begun shipping. Not all models are in stores yet but we know some have arrived as we've heard from people who have bought them and are beginning to upload our TOPO! maps to their units.

Check out topo-triton.com for more details, links to a how-to and free upgrade for Triton users.

Watch a video about the top-of-the-line (not in stores quite yet) Triton 2000.

5 comments:

That's a nice piece of hardware right there. I have to wonder though, exactly how they do these things to track people in their phones, cars, boats, planes, offender monitoring, laptops and more; this whole talk about GPS is just really interesting to me.

Surf on over to TritonForum.com and really see how well this combination (Magellan Triton GPSr & Topo!) is working. I have never seen so many complaints from so many angry consumers. It appears this product (Triton) was rushed to market before sufficient testing was done and the consumer is the one that loses.

In general, map transfers have worked well on all models. Certainly, we've heard from customers who have had challenges and I believe our tech support has been successful in resolving these.

We know that there is new firmware for some models and that has created issues we are working through.

I encourage any Triton user having problems with map and data transfer from TOPO! to contact us at topo@ngs.org.

National Geographic's goal in this is simply to make our maps viewable on a handheld GPS screen as we've been asked for this over the years, and Magellan was the company that responded.

We appreciate and apoligize for the frustrations that came with this new technology but are confident that improvements will continue to come from the Magellan side and we will mirror them as needed to make the map and data transfers work.

Last month I bought a Triton 2000 and the NG Topp! state series. I did go to Tritonforum.com for invaluable tips setting the whole thing up with Vantage Point install and firmware update. The support page at NG for the Triton was also very helpful. After a few hours, everything worked.

The Triton is now very usable and worthwhile, although there is much more potential that hopefully will be realized in the next firmware update.

Last weekend I took a hike in the woods with a fairly dense canopy of 40 year old alder trees growing on the roadbed of what once was a 4 wheel drive road. The Triton plotted my position the entire time exactly on the roadbed! Kudos to both the Triton and how accurately NG has geo-referenced their topos!

I appreciate your comment and glad to hear of your experience. Indeed, there were a lot of problems attributable to the firmware Triton had at launch. They've sure come a long way and are continuing to make improvements. We remain confident the Triton-TOPO! solution is the best available for backcountry navigation.